When the Law of Attraction fails for you

The Law of Attraction is darn popular right now. It’s a belief that your thoughts dictate your reality, that being open to what you want draws it to you. Sometimes this is metaphoric – the openness lets you see more opportunities, for example. Some people mean it literally – a metaphysical process of moving energy around the universe.

I’ll let people decide that one on their own. A short article isn’t going to change your mind.

What I want to pay attention to is its hit rate. Some people swear by it. I’ve heard plenty of folk say that they found love, health and millions through it.

I’ve also heard people say it’s a ridiculous and awkward waste of time.

The truth is that both groups are right. Not every success story is a lie, and not every failed attempt was a lack of effort. It works for some people, but not others.

So what’s missing from the Law of Attraction?

Well, some experts on it think it needs more references to quantum physics.

No one knows why it works, so I won’t pretend to. It doesn’t matter. What’s much more useful is knowing how to make the most of it.

We’ve all had moments where we thought one thing and did another. We promise to save money that we end up spending. The resolve to eat a light meal buckles at the sight of some cake.

Or you pursue an opportunity with full enthusiasm and it doesn’t work out.

What thoughts change reality and which ones don’t?

The thoughts behind the Law of Attraction

Your mind works on two different layers.

One layer is your conscious mind. This is the stuff you notice or do deliberately. You can easily control this part. Some of it is simple, like deciding to think of the colour red. Sometimes it’s more complex, like forcing yourself to pay attention even though you’re tired and distracted.

It’s great at using logic to solve problems. If you have all the pieces of a puzzle (literally or metaphorically), then this is your mind that pulls them together.

The rest of your mind is your unconscious. This is everything else.

This includes running your body – things like making your heart beat, regulating your temperature and ensuring your muscles fire in the right sequences.

It also includes your emotions. You can’t consciously decide to be calm and happy, after all. You can think of soothing, pleasant things, but it’s not as simple as deciding to raise your arm.

Your unconscious also handles your intuition, instincts and insights. It solves problems where logic doesn’t cut it. There’s no “logical” way to convince someone to help you – there are too many variables to calculate. You simply go with what seems right, adjusting your strategy on the fly.

Each mind is a genius at certain things and a dunce at others. Have you ever tried to remember something – an old acquaintance’s name, for example? The harder you try, the harder it is to think of it. That’s because by straining your brain, you’re using your conscious mind. Remembering is an unconscious activity, which is why the name pops into mind as soon as you distract yourself.

Your mind works best when you leave unconscious tasks to your unconscious, and vice versa.

And that’s how some people struggle to attract things into their life.

Looking for a sense of purpose in your life? If you haven’t found it yet, you need a new way of thinking. My eBook overflows with exercises to find your life’s vision.

How the Law of Attraction fails

The Law of Attraction is not like ordering something off a menu. The classic example is someone visualising a cheque for $10,000. For some people, focusing on specifics helps narrow their focus. For others, it distracts them.

The world is full of people who read The Secret and sit around, imagining monstrous cheques in their hands. It’s the wrong move. They decide what that want consciously, which uses the wrong mind. When you think about what you want, you usually think from greed or fear.

Greed makes you turn your nose up at cheques for $8,000. It also makes you ignore small payoffs that lead to bigger ones – a cheque for a thousand bucks might be the start of a million-dollar relationship. Chances are you blow that opportunity because it doesn’t look right.

(“Were you even listening, idiot universe? I said ten grand!”)

Meanwhile fear makes you imagine goals you don’t really want. “I don’t want to be poor” isn’t a goal. You want something to pursue, not avoid.

The universe doesn’t exist to satisfy you base, materialistic desires. Neither does your unconscious. Imagine a sports car in your garage and you’ll miss the point. More importantly, you’ll miss opportunities for what you really want.

Your conscious goals are rubbish. You can’t decide what you want. All you can do is explore your mind and learn what you already value.

Maybe you want money because you want a life of pleasure. If you, you’re better off focusing on that. If money is the best way to experience more pleasure, you’ll find more of it. But they key is that you’ll spot chances to enjoy yourself with the means you already have.

You need to think about what you need, not what you think you want.

Why the Law of Attraction uses your unconscious mind

When you think about making a change – say, becoming more confident – then two things can happen.

If your conscious mind thinks it, it’s little more than talking to yourself. You want to make the change but it doesn’t stick.

Personal growth only happens when your unconscious thinking changes. Until that happens, you’re still a work in progress.

The Law of Attraction works on the same principle. If you consciously think about abundance and openness, that’ll only get you so far. When your unconscious thinks of them, then your entire mindset shifts.

I don’t blame you if you find this frustrating. Everything you could ever want – love, success, money, fame, power, respect – hinges on your unconscious mind learning to attract these things.

The problem is that the unconscious mind, by definition, is outside conscious control.

You can’t mess with your own programming.

You’re stuck for life.

Or are you?

How to master the Law of Attraction

It’s not hard to find exercises that train your unconscious. Within minutes of firing up Google, you can find how to visualise your dreams and write affirmations.

It’s a fine line between training your mind and wasting your time. Most people don’t know the line is there. They instinctively do what seems obvious. Whether that idea is right decides whether it works for them.

Because affirmations alone don’t work.

And empty visualisations don’t do a thing.

Neither do any Law of Attraction exercises. They’re empty calories without the secret sauce.

No, you have to do these exercises in the right state of mind. Your goal is to train your unconscious, so your unconscious needs to be ready. If you dive in and try them, it might work. Or your mind might resist the process.

Who knows – maybe you’re one of the lucky ones who can make affirmations work. Even so, you’ll get faster, cleaner and easier results if you enter the ideal learning state first.

Outside that state, you don’t accept new ideas. Part of your mind refuses to believe pushy salespeople, slimy politicians and sociopaths. This is your mind’s filter, built right into your conscious mind. If it’s active, you aren’t open to new ideas.

In the learning state, though, your conscious mind doesn’t interfere. Instead, your inner mind takes affirmations as instructions and visualisations as prophecy. What you think consciously becomes unconscious material. You accept the new idea and integrate it into your personality.

How do you enter the ideal learning state?

Not consciously…

Use hypnosis to learn the Law of Attraction

Hypnosis has been used on all continents for thousands of years. Historically, societies used it as a teaching tool, for emotional healing and for thinking of new ideas. This is because it clears mental blocks.

If you get in your own way – and everyone does – then hypnosis is the best thing.

If all you know of hypnosis is stage hypnosis, then consider this: it’s so effective at bypassing conscious blocks that it’s entertaining. In a hypnotic state, they choose to do things in public they’d never do even in private.

It makes them open to everything they’re capable of.

This is because hypnosis bypasses the conscious mind and works directly with the unconscious. A hypnotic trance is an ideal learning state. Suggestions go right where they need to.

If you tell someone the world is abundant, they might intellectually agree with you. They might not. Either way, it won’t change how they see the world.

If you say the same thing while they’re in hypnosis, they accept it at the deepest levels. It becomes a foundational belief, from which other ideas and actions spring.

It drives you towards opportunities and tells you that you can succeed.

So if you want to believe – truly believe – in an abundant universe, then experience hypnosis.

Like the training audios I offer to the world, for whatever you can pay.

You can experience abundance, creativity, confidence, energy and charisma, from the inside out.

Work at the level of your unconscious, where all decisions and drives come from.

Imagine the Law of Attraction nestled deep in your thinking, drawing your desires towards you every day.